Checked in on the status of Haiku OS, and saw that Beta 1 was finally released.I was a huge BeOS user, and still have my original Intel release disks, as well as the 4.x series and the last 5.x install disc.

I need more excuses to make strudel. My last attempt was my best so far. I have really gotten much better at pulling the dough thin.Perhaps I should experiment with some kind of savory filling instead of cherry or apple. That way, I won't fee as bad when I eat it all.

Sometime in the last couple weeks, it appears that the apps pinned to the nav bar, or in the app tray are no longer there.Clicking "Add Apps", and then attempting to click the star yields no result. I can click on the app icon in the Add Apps screen, and launch them that way.

All channels on the server have this issue. All using the default theme. On current stable release, and updates are current.

2018-09-09 Update: Resolved! The issue stemmed from the "term" table in the Hubzilla database having the "crashed" status. After repairing the table, the app tray functions returned to normal.

Big Brother has arrived - and it’s you. Investigate the lives of citizens to find those responsible for a series of terror attacks. Information from the internet, personal communications and private files are all accessible to you. But, be warned, the information you supply will have consequences…

Orwell is a new governmental security program that has the power to survey the online presence of every person in The Nation. It can monitor all personal communications and access any computer. To preserve the privacy of citizens, human researchers examine the data Orwell finds and decide which pieces of information should be passed on to the security forces, and which should be rejected.

Selected from thousands of candidates, you are Orwell’s first human researcher. And when a terror attack rocks the Nation’s capital city of Bonton, Orwell, and you, are immediately put to the test. Starting with a single person of interest, you'll help the security forces build out and profile a network of potential culprits.

But are these people really terrorists? What does the information you reveal to Orwell say about them? What if you find out things about them that not even their loved ones know? What is the real price of maintaining the security that the Nation is yearning for?

Yesterday I managed to break the screen on my phone while it was in my pocket.Looks like the digitizer is damaged, as it no longer accepts touch input. While I'm waiting for repair parts to come in, I decided to install Sailfish OS on my wife's old OnePlus X.

Here are some initial thoughts:

Likes:1. Love the overall UI aesthetic. And the icons look gorgeous on an OLED screen. I was a huge fan of Windows Phone from 7 all the way to the end. I find may similarities to Windows Phone 7 and 8 (and that isn't bad at all!)2. Designed for one handed use. No back/home/etc buttons. Simple gestures control everything.3. Card/Cal DAV works out of the box with my Baikal(Saberdav) server.

Dislikes:1. SMS works well, but MMS will not download messages.2. Software selection between Jolla store and OpenRepos isn't great. I would say Windows Phone in its early days had a larger selection of indie applications. Im missing things like a native Matrix client. Would be nice to have a Twitter/Mastodon combo client like Twidere.

On a side note, I can see why Jolla is bringing the OS to feature phones. It seems very light, and the interface combined with a decent core set of built in apps would be a good experience on such a device.

The local Bergner's department store is going out of business, so I dropped into see if any amazing deals could be had (There were none).They did have all of the store fixtures for sale, including mannequins. A whole army lined up like a scene from a scifi film.

In addition, they had reclining and sitting models. These appeared to be angry, and judgmental. A great addition to any living room!

For the last month, my NTFS formatted data partition was showing up as read-only in Linux.I found the culprit tonight: Windows 10 fast startup had been re-enabled at some point. Because I obvious didn't know what I was doing when I turned it off the first time.

It has been a long time since I have done any PHP work, and was considering a Hubzilla "app" as a little project.This would be a dice roller for use by role players, or "Just because".

I have a private channel on my server which is used for a play-by-post Dungeons and Dragons campaign with my daughters. Since I work evenings, it makes it easy to keep track of and continue our game when schedules do not mesh. At the moment, I have been doing the dice rolls for them.

This is how I envision the mod working: The player would type what action they are taking as usual. With the text formatting buttons, there would be a new dice roll button. Clicking it would present the user with a selection of dice types, and a box next to each for them to input how many of that type they want to roll. Clicking the finish button would add a tag like [diceroll] into the message.

The message ID will be recorded in the database along with the roll requested, and generated result. When the message is posted, only then will the result be displayed. This keeps unscrupulous players from cheating by using preview to see what the result is before posting. And since only one dice roll can be created per MID, it prevents someone from generating a roll, then editing the message, deleting the roll and adding a new one.

I will also have a regular "app" interface. Rolls created in this standalone mode will not be stored in the database.

This is all in the planning stages at this point, but I don't think it will be that difficult.

Been having issues with my WIFI lately, so I checked into a firmware update.

I am ashamed to say, I have been two major versions behind in the OpenWrt/LEDE world.After a few minutes of reentering the port forwards for torrents, and my servers I am back up and running.All seems slick, but we will see what happens when my wife starts a video streaming binge.

E3 had some stuff that interested me this year.My FPS playing daughter and I are looking forward to the new Halo.

The Division 2 could be promising, but I'll keep my expectations low. The setting of the new game is promising. I loved New York in the first game, but after running around tall buildings in the winter for many months, I have grown weary of it. Washington D.C in the summer should be more varied. Plus the cosmetics wont be limited to a hundred styles of ski jackets and beanies.

Ooblets now has dance fights, which is pretty fun. Also looking forward to Don't Nod's mini adventure in the Life is Strange universe (Captain Spirit).

As far as E3 Sales go, I ended up grabbing Deus Ex: Mankind Divided for $6 (I have yet to play it. Loved the Human Revolution).In addition, I also acquired an Xbox copy of Dreamfall Chapters. I was up to chapter 3 on my PC, but since one of my daughters has taken over the machine that it was installed on, I don't have time to finish it there. Since my kids have shown an interest in adventure games, it will be cool to show off the beginning of the game to them.

My Linden tree bloomed this week. When the breeze blows in the evening, it smells amazing!Not a single honeybee sighting though Thus far this year, I have sighted zero honey bees. Fortunately, there are quite a few bumble bees. There is one (possibly two) hives of them on my property.

Tinkered with my old notebook running FreeBSD yesterday.I have had an issue getting WIFI stable. It will ping, but a few minutes later the connection fails to work.After a quick RTFM session, I found out that I was missing the kernel modules for wifi encryption.

So far, the lack of wifi configuration tools like WICD or Network manager are the only weak points in FreeBSD.I'll have to master the tools provided in order to change access points.

Otherwise everything works as it did on Linux, with the exception of the trackpad. In Linux, the track pad used the two finger gesture for scrolling. In FreeBSD, scrolling is achieved by the little scroll strip on the right hand side of the track pad (like in Windows).

Had some time to tinker with FreeBSD on my old Compaq laptop. Was able to get WiFi up, and working Mate session. So far, I love having rc.conf as a systemwide config file. Old versions of Archlinux had it, and I was sad when they moved away from it.

Finished the third and final part of the Area X trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer. While book 1 (Annihilation) and 2 (Authority) both have the POV of a single character, Acceptance changes the formula a bit by jumping between four different characters. i found this made it a more interesting read when compared to Authority (which had the Southern Reach headquarters as setting for most of the story).

I am a bit torn when it comes to this series. I love the idea behind it. The writing is fantastic. I like the characters. The main issue for me, is that much of the mystery is left intentionally ambiguous. If you are looking for clear cut answers, then you will not find them here. Which is fine, I guess. It has led me to re-read several portions of the books, and to reconsider my opinions on certain events. Perhaps this is another reason the author wrote the story in this fashion: It would keep the reader's perception of the story in a state of constant flux. Much like Area X itself. However, there is part of me that would have liked a few clear cut answers to some of the questions that arose while reading these novels.

Regarding character development, you are introduced to the Saul, the Lighthouse Keeper, who is probably my favorite character in this book. You also learn a bit more about the motivations of the former director of the Southern Reach (the psychologist from Annihilation). The fate of the biologist from Annihilation is revealed. Not much is done with John (Control) in this book, as the reader is shown is having a hard time dealing with Area X, and the changes that are happening to him. Ghost Bird (the biologist's doppelganger) appears to discover the answers she has sought, and I assume her story will be expanded in the coming books.

Jeff Vandermeer said that is working on details for two more Area X novels, which I will be looking forward to. I am hoping that the next book picks up directly after Acceptance, as you are left questioning the fate of two of the characters.

If I were to rate all three books, it would be like this: Annihilation > Acceptance > Authority. Annihilation can stand by itself as a solo story, which is why it is at the top.

I'll cross into spoiler territory below, these opinions may change as I reconsider some of the plot elements:

Click to open/close

The entity behind the creation of Area X is alien in nature, and was created by a race of beings on a distant world. The reason for it's creation is unclear. It may have been to heal their world in the event of an emergency, or to keep it pure. Or as I have been considering... the being may be "a keeper of the light", and may have been constructed of pure energy, or light.

The planet that this being was on was completely destroy in a fiery cataclysm from the sky. Perhaps a storm of asteroids or comets. A chunk of this planet was ejected into space, and after a time collided with the Earth in it's prehistoric past. There, the entity remained inert in the sand and eventually was harvested to created glass which was used in the construction of a lens. The lens of the lighthouse in Area X.

Central (could be any secret US Government agency) funds activities of the Seance and Science Brigade. A low-key way to research any leads on paranormal or potentially alien activity. A group of the S&SB members have taken special interest in the Lost Coast, and the Light House in particular. One of their members discovers something in the lens, and attempts to chip it out, knocking it free, and to the ground where it is discovered by the Saul the Lighthouse Keeper. The entity begins to regenerate itself, and ends up creating the barrier around Area X.

The entity works outside of our rules for time and space. The barrier it creates is a border in space/time. Inside Area X, time moves much faster than it does outside. This accounts for why things appear to decay so fast. The entity appears to have possibly linked or moved the area inside the border to it's home planet.

The purpose of the mutations it causes to humans who step inside is unclear. It appears to look at every part of a person, every thought and memory. And then remake them into their "true" version that can co-exist with its surroundings. In particular, the being saw Saul as a "Keeper of the Light", so when he was assimilated, he became the guard of the inverse version of the lighthouse with the light at the bottom.

I think that everything living and non-living are assimilated by the being, and eventually become a giant super organism.

At the end of Acceptance, regarding the border I think there may be a few possibilities. A) The link between Area X and the alien world was severed and the border came down. The entity giving up on rebuilding a ruined world and deciding to make Earth its new home. B) The border advanced, and more of Earth has been assimilated.

Keeping with the SciFi theme, I have selected Hyperion by Dan Simmons as my next book.